GLACIAL EPOCH--CONTINUED.
_Belgian Caverns._--The relics discovered by Dr. Schmerling, in the
caves of Belgium, must be referred to the time of the retreat of the
glaciers. The glaciers were still in existence, but their receding had
freed immense tracts of land, and the space they now covered was small
in proportion to their former extent. Whether it be considered or not,
that vegetation greatly nourished and the great wild beasts were rapidly
increasing, one thing must be noticed, and that is, floods must have
succeeded or followed closely upon the retreat of the ice. Many remains,
referred to the glacial epoch, may in reality, have occupied the time of
the floods occurring just previous to the commencement of the
inter-glacial.
The Belgian Caverns, near Liege, either belong exactly to the ice, or
else to a period not far removed. Lyell considers the older monuments of
the palaeolithic period to be the rude implements found in ancient river
gravel and in the mud and stalagmite caves.[23] Caves of this
description are those reported on by Dr. Schmerling.
The caverns of the province of Liege were not the dens of wild beasts,
but their contents had been swept in by the action of water. The bones
of man "were of the same color, and in the same condition as to the
amount of animal matter contained in them, as those of the accompanying
animals, some of which, like the cave-bear, hyena, elephant, and
rhinoceros, were extinct; others, like the wild-cat, beaver, wild boar,
roe-deer, wolf, and hedgehog, still extant. The fossils were lighter
than fresh bones, except such as had their pores filled with carbonate
of lime, in which case they were often much heavier. The human remains
of most frequent occurrence were teeth detached from the jaw, and the
carpal, metacarpal, tarsal, metatarsal, and phalangial bones separated
from the rest of the skeleton. The corresponding bones of the cave-bear,
the most abundant of the accompanying mammalia, were also found in the
Liege caverns more commonly than any others, and in the same scattered
condition."[24] In some of these caves, rude flint implements, of a
triangular form, were found dispersed through the cave mud. Dr.
Schmerling did not pay much attention to these, as he was engrossed in
his osteological inquiries. The human bones were met with at all depths,
in the cave mud and gravel, both above and below those of the extinct
mammalia.
The floors of these caverns were incrusted with stalagmite.[25] In the
cavern at Chokier there occur "three distinct beds of stalagmite, and
between each of them a mass of breccia, and mud mixed with quartz
pebbles, and in the three deposits the bones of extinct quadrupeds."[26]
FOSSIL SKULL OF THE ENGIS CAVE NEAR LIEGE.
The fossil skull from the cavern of Engis was deposited at a depth of
about five feet, under an osseous breccia containing a tusk of the
rhinoceros, the teeth of the horse, and the remains of small animals.
The breccia was about three and one-fourth feet wide, and rose to the
height of about five feet above the floor of the cavern. In the earth
which contained the skull there was found, surrounding it on all sides,
the teeth of the rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and with no marks
of the earth having been disturbed.
There was also found the cranium of a young person, in the floor of the
cavern, besides an elephant's tooth. When first observed, the skull was
entire, but fell to pieces when removed from its position. Besides these
there were found a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, with the molar
teeth worn down to the roots, indicating that of an old man; two
vertebrae, a first and last dorsal; a clavicle of the left side,
belonging to a young individual of great stature; two fragments of the
radius, indicating a man of ordinary height; a fragment of an ulna: some
metacarpal bones; six metatarsal, three phalanges of the hand and one of
the foot.
Dr. Schmerling found in this cave a pointed bone implement incrusted
with stalagmite and joined to a stone.
Of the Engis skull Professor Huxley has remarked, "As Professor
Schmerling observes, the base of the skull is destroyed, and the facial
bones are entirely absent; but the roof of the cranium, consisting of
the frontal, parietal, and the greater part of the occipital bones, as
far as the middle of the occipital foramen, is entire, or nearly so. The
left temporal bone is wanting. Of the right temporal, the parts in the
immediate neighborhood of the auditory foramen, the mastoid process, and
a considerable portion of the squamous element of the temporal, are well
preserved."
A piece of the occipital bone, which Schmerling seems to have missed,
has since been fitted on to the rest of the cranium by Dr. Spring, the
accomplished anatomist of Liege.
"The skull is that of an adult, if not middle-aged man. The extreme
length of the skull is 7.7 inches. Its extreme breadth, which
corresponds very nearly with the interval between the parietal
protuberances, is not more than 5.4 inches. The proportion of the length
to the breadth is therefore very nearly as 100 to 70. If a line be drawn
from the point at which the brow curves in towards the root of the nose,
and which is called the 'glabella' (_a_, Fig. 8), to the occipital
protuberance (_d_), and the distance to the highest point of the arch of
the skull be measured perpendicularly from this line, it will be
found to be 4.75 inches. Viewed from above, the forehead presents an
evenly rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the sides and back
of the skull, which describes a tolerably regular elliptical curve.
[Illustration: FIG. 7. PROFESSOR T. H. HUXLEY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8. SIDE VIEW OF THE HUMAN SKULL FOUND IN THE CAVE
OF ENGIS.
_a._ Superciliary ridge and glabella.
_b._ Coronal suture.
_d._ The occipital protuberance.]
"The front view shows that the roof of the skull was very regularly and
elegantly arched in the transverse direction, and that the transverse
diameter was a little less below the parietal protuberances, than above
them. The forehead cannot be called narrow in relation to the rest of
the skull, nor can it be called a retreating forehead; on the contrary,
the antero-posterior contour of the skull is well arched, so that the
distance along that contour, from the nasal depression to the occipital
protuberance, measures about 13.75 inches. The transverse arc of the
skull, measured from one auditory foramen to the other, across the
middle of the sagittal suture, is about 13 inches. The sagittal suture
itself is 5.5 inches long. The superciliary prominences or brow-ridges
(_a_) are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a
median depression. Their principal elevation is disposed so obliquely
that I judge them to be due to large frontal sinuses. If a line joining
the glabella and the occipital protuberance (_a_, _d_, Fig. 8) be made
horizontal, no part of the occipital region projects more than one-tenth
of an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line, and the upper
edge of the auditory foramen is almost in contact with a line drawn
parallel with this upon the outer surface of the skull."[27]
Some of the views expressed by Professor Huxley are at variance with
those of other eminent scientists. Lubbock reports him as saying, "There
is no mark of degradation about any part of its structure. It is, in
fact, a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a
philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a
savage."[28] Mr. Busk agrees and partially disagrees with Professor
Huxley, for he remarked to Lyell, "Although the forehead was somewhat
narrow, it might nevertheless be matched by the skulls of individuals of
European race."[29]
Dr. Schmerling, Buchner, and Vogt are arrayed against Huxley. The first
says, "I hold it to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a
person of limited intellectual faculties, and we conclude thence that it
belonged to a man of a low degree of civilization."[30] "From the
narrowness of the frontal portion it belonged to an individual of small
intellectual development."[31] Buchner says, "In its length and
narrowness, the slight elevation of its forehead, the form of the widely
separated orbits and the well developed supra-orbital arches, it
resembles, especially when viewed from above, the celebrated Neanderthal
skull, but in general is far superior to this in its structure."[32]
Carl Vogt "regards it, with reference to the proportion of length to
breadth, as one of the most ill-favored, animal-like and simian of
skulls."[33]
The cause of this wide difference of opinion may arise from the failure
to observe the fact that the older the formation in which a skull is
found, the lower is the type. The ordinary observer, judging by the cast
of the skull, would see nothing ape-like about it, and certainly would
fail to see any indications of a philosopher.
NEANDERTHAL SKULL.
The Neanderthal skull was taken from a small cave or grotto in-the
valley of the Duessel, near Duesseldorf, situated about seventy miles
north-east of the region of the Liege caverns. The grotto is in a deep
ravine sixty feet above the river, one hundred feet below the surface of
the country, and at a distance of about ten feet from the Duessel River.
It is fifteen feet deep from the entrance (_f_), which is seven or eight
feet wide. Before the cavern had been injured, it opened upon a narrow
plateau lying in front. The floor of the cave was covered four or five
feet in thickness with a deposit of mud or loam, and containing some
rounded fragments of chert. Two laborers, in removing this deposit,
first noticed the skull, placed near the entrance, and further in met
with the other bones. As the bones were not regarded as of any
importance, at the time of their discovery, only the larger ones have
been preserved.
[Illustration: FIG. 9. SECTION OF THE NEANDERTHAL CAVE.
_a._ Cavern sixty feet above the Duessel, and one hundred feet
below the surface of the country at _c_.
_b._ Loam covering the floor of the cave near the bottom of which
the human skeleton was found.
_c_, _a_. Rent connecting the cave with the upper surface of the
country.
_d._ Superficial sandy loam.
_e._ Devonian limestone.
_f._ Terrace, or ledge of rock.]
Some discussion has arisen in respect to the geological time of these
bones. There was no stalagmite overlying the mud or loam in which the
skeleton was found, and no other bones met with save the tusk of a bear.
There is no certain data given whereby its position may be known.
Professor Huxley declares that the bones "indicate a very high
antiquity."[34] Buchner is very positive in his statement, and declares
that "the loam-deposit which partly fills the caves of the Neanderthal
and the clefts and fissures of its limestone mountains, and in which
both the Neanderthal bones and the fossil bones and teeth of animals
were imbedded, is exactly the same that, in the caverns of the
Neanderthal, covers the whole limestone mountain with a deposit from ten
to twelve feet in thickness, and the diluvial origin of which is
unmistakable."[35] Dr. Fuhlrott says, "The position and general
arrangement of the locality in which they were found, place it, in my
judgment, beyond doubt that the bones belong to the diluvium, and
therefore to primitive times, _i. e._ they come down to us from a period
of the past when our native country was still inhabited by various kinds
of animals, especially mammoths and cave-bears, which have long since
disappeared out of the series of living creatures."[36]
The diluvial or glacial origin of the Neanderthal skull is still further
confirmed by the discoveries made, in the summer of 1865, in the
Teufelskammer. This cavern is situated one hundred and thirty paces from
the one in which the human bones were found, and on the same side of the
river.. In the loam-deposit of this cave were found numerous fossil
bones and teeth of the rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, and other
extinct animals. "A great part of these bones, especially those of the
cave-bears, agree in color, weight, density, and the preservation of
their microscopic structure, with the human bones found in the
Feldhofner Cave (in which the Neanderthal man was found), and both are
covered with the same _dendrites_, or tree-like markings."[37]
Before entering into a description and discussion of this remarkable
skull, an enumeration of the other bones will be given. All the bones
are characterized by their unusual thickness, and the great development
of all the elevations and depressions for the attachment of muscles. The
two thigh bones were in a perfect state, also the right humerus and
radius; the upper third of the right ulna; the left ulna complete,
though pathologically deformed, the coronoid process being so much
enlarged by bony growth that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle
was impossible; the left humerus is much slenderer than the right, and
the upper third is wanting. Its anterior fossa for the reception of the
coronoid process is filled up with a bony growth, and, at the same time,
the olecranon process is curved strongly downwards. The indications are
that an injury sustained during life was the cause of this defect. There
was an ilium, almost perfect; a fragment of the right scapula; the
anterior extremity of a rib of the right side, and two hinder portions
and one middle portion of ribs resembling more the ribs of a carnivorous
animal than those of man. This abnormal condition has arisen from the
powerful development of the thoracic muscles.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. SIDE VIEW OF THE HUMAN SKULL FROM FELDHOFNER
CAVE, IN THE NEANDERTHAL, NEAR DUeSSELDORF.
_a._ The superciliary ridge and glabella.
_c._ The apex of the lambdoidal suture.
_b._ The coronal suture.
_d._ The occipital protuberance.]
The cranium is thus described by Professor Huxley. "It has an extreme
length of 8 inches, while its breadth is only 5-3/4 inches, or in other
words, its length is to its breadth as 100 is to 72. It is exceedingly
depressed, measuring only about 3.4 inches from the glabello-occipital
line to the vertex. The longitudinal arc, measured in the same way as in
the Engis skull, is 12 inches; the transverse arc cannot be exactly
ascertained, in consequence of the absence of the temporal bones, but
was probably about the same, and certainly exceeded 10-1/4 inches. The
horizontal circumference is 23 inches. But this great circumference
arises largely from the vast development of the superciliary ridges,
though the perimeter of the brain case itself is not small. The large
superciliary ridges give the forehead a far more retreating appearance
than its internal contour would bear out. To an anatomical eye the
posterior part of the skull is even more striking than the anterior. The
occipital protuberance occupies the extreme posterior end of the skull,
when the glabello-occipital line is made horizontal, and so far from any
part of the occipital region extending beyond it, this region of the
skull slopes obliquely upward and forward, so that the lambdoidal suture
is situated well upon the upper surface of the cranium. At the same
time, notwithstanding the great length of the skull, the sagittal suture
is remarkably short (4-1/2 inches) and the squamosal suture is very
straight."[38] ... "The cranium, in its present condition, contains
about sixty-three English cubic inches of water. As the entire skull
could hardly have held less than twelve cubic inches more, its minimum
capacity may be estimated at seventy-five cubic inches.... It has
certainly not undergone compression, and, in reply to the suggestion
that the skull is that of an idiot, it may be urged that the _onus
probandi_ lies with those who adopt the hypothesis. Idiocy is compatible
with very various forms and capacities of the cranium, but I know of
none which present the least resemblance to the Neanderthal skull."[39]
Professor Huxley describes this skull to be the most ape-like of all the
human skulls he has ever seen, and in its examination ape-like
characters are met with in all its parts.[40] Buchner says that the face
of the Neanderthal man must have presented a frightfully bestial and
savage, or ape-like expression (see frontispiece).[41] Professor
Schaaffhausen and Mr. Busk have stated that "this skull is the most
brutal of all known human skulls, resembling those of the apes not only
in the prodigious development of the superciliary prominences and the
forward extension of the orbits, but still more in the depressed form
of the brain-case, in the straightness of the squamosal suture, and in
the complete retreat of the occiput forward and upward, from the
superior occipital ridges."[42]
Professor Schaaffhausen and Dr. Buchner regarded this skull as a
race-type, and Professor Huxley has said "that it truly forms only the
extreme member of a series leading by slow degrees to the highest and
best developed forms of human skulls."[43]
That this skull is a race-type is evident from the fact that it is not
an isolated case. The fragment of the skull from the loess of the Rhine
(Alsace), by its depressed forehead and strongly projecting superciliary
arches, greatly resembles the Neanderthal skull. The skull from the
calcareous tuff of Constatt, in its low, narrow forehead and strong
superciliary arches, resembles the Neanderthal.[44] The cranium found in
bone breccia, in Cochrane's Cave (Gibraltar), "resembles, in all
essential particulars, including its great thickness, the far-famed
Neanderthal skull. Its discovery adds immensely to the scientific value
of the Neanderthal specimen, if only as showing that the latter does not
represent, as many have hitherto supposed, a mere individual
peculiarity, but that it may have been characteristic of a race
extending from the Rhine to the Pillars of Hercules."[45] In speaking of
the Neanderthal skull, Professor Schaaffhausen says, "It is worthy of
notice that a similar, although smaller projection of the superciliary
arches has generally been found in the skulls of savage races.... The
remarkably small skull from the graves on the island of Moen, examined
by Professor Eschricht; the two human skulls, described by Dr. Kutorga,
from the government of Minsk (Russia), one of which, especially, shows a
great resemblance to the Neanderthal skull; the human skeleton found
near Plau, in Mecklenburg, in a very ancient grave, in a squatting
position, ... the skull of which indicates a very distant period, when
man stood on a very low grade of development;" and other similar
discoveries near Mecklenburg, their skulls likewise presenting short,
retreating foreheads and projecting eyebrows.[46]
Professor Huxley considers that the Borreby skulls, belonging to the
stone age of Denmark, "show a great resemblance to the Neanderthal
skull, a resemblance which is manifested in the depression of the
cranium, the receding forehead, the contracted occiput and the prominent
superciliary ridges."[47]
_Human Skull of Arno._--The human skull, found by Professor Cocchi in
the valley of the Arno, near Florence, in diluvial clay, together with
various bones of extinct species of animals, is considered by Carl Vogt
to be of like antiquity with the Engis and Neanderthal skulls.[48]